Dacryops
by kiniro no hana
Summary: A Slavic riverside. Two figures on a stone bench. The sounds of geese in the early morning. Mist curling above the water.


**Dacryops**

"Grandfather, why can't I go play with Father?" D asked his Grandfather with big, adorable eyes. His Grandfather sighed and pulled the little thing into his lap, giving the boy a cupcake to keep him occupied for a bit while he pulled an answer out of somewhere…

"Waaaaai~!" D cried in joy as he ate the chocolate on red velvet cupcake. He loved sugar~! He loved the soft sun on his face, and the soft silk of his yeye's clothes, and the long nails winding in his short hair. While the child was delighting in the world at large, his Grandfather used his other hand to pet the stalk of a small sunflower plant, coaxing it to awaken in the early morning light. When D looked up from devouring the cupcake, he was staring right into the mahogany colored center of a huge sunflower blossom. His little mouth smiled widely as he hugged the plant, giggling at the prickly feeling of the stalk. It was a quaint place, this small European village, with cobbled streets and classical architecture, and it was overflowing with happy residents, the majority of them non-human.

A stream gossiped with the waterfowl bobbing on its surface, who passed on the news to the elder spirit sitting on a stone bench by the bank. The small child switched the focus of his very short attention span to the geese in the stream, reaching out for them with tiny hands. He could hear them in his head, but he couldn't talk to them yet. This did not stop the eager boy from trying to go play with them, to his Grandfather's dismay. Only his Grandfather's warm arm around his waist kept the child from falling head over heels down the steep bank and into the crisp water below.

"Papa is minding the store while I'm not there, Sūnzi." Sofu D said calmly, giving the child the safest reason he could think of. Little D looked up from the geese to stare at his Grandfather's gold eyes, wondering if there was something they were not telling him.

"Then can we go visit the shop, Ye ye?" The little child asked innocently, staring up at his guardian with those eyes that made fawns kneel down to their cuteness. The old man sighed and nodded, appeasing the boy for the moment. He continued holding on to the little child, pondering the wisdom of letting the father of the boy have any influence on him at all. Where he had gone wrong with his son, he did not know, it was only obvious that he had. That would not happen with this little one though. He was determined.

"Ye ye, may I go play with the swans?" Little D asked his grandfather, pleading with the older man for freedom from his lap by wriggling and squirming. Sofu D smiled with amusement.

"Those aren't swans, little one. Those are Greylag Geese, very common in this part of the world. And yes, you may go play with the geese." His grandfather permitted, lifting the child out of his lap and taking off the silken overcoat that he knew would only meet an early demise on the frame of his adventurous grandson. Clad only in cotton pants and a shirt, the little sprite looked far more beautiful than any human child.

"Thank you Ye ye! Waaaai~!" The little boy exclaimed as he ran down the sharp hill to swim with the geese.

"My, my what an adorable son you have…" A voice came from behind the older being. He turned to see an elderly woman walking along with her goat, a basket of yarn spools and bolts of cloth on both their backs. He smiled winsomely at the old lady who giggled, patting the head of the old goat.

"He's actually my grandson, but thank you nonetheless, madam." Count D said smoothly, standing to bow to the woman. She smiled and looked down at the frolicking boy.

"Yes, it seems he is. I'd never have believed it if I hadn't a' seen it with my own old eyes! Welcome to our village, Polevoi. Here is a little thing for your child." The old lady bowed to him and handed him a roll of bread drizzled with icing. She then continued walking, disappearing into the mists of the morning. Count D tore off a bit of the bun and popped it in his mouth, enjoying the flaky sugar. His cute grandson was still down with the geese, helping them wash themselves and then generally getting in the way and under their feet.

"Sūnzi! Come up!" the Count called to the boy, who stopped his fun and looked up at the stone bench plaintively. Well until he saw the sweet treat held in one hand anyway.

"Ye ye! Can I have some too?" The boy squealed as he ran up the hill, tripping over his own clumsy feet. Their kind only gained a sense of grace after adolescence, after all. Just as little D was about to jump into his grandfather's welcoming arms, he slipped on mud and fell back down the hill, cracking his head on a rock as he clawed his way to a stop. Covered in mud and muck now, the poor child looked quite a sight. D's eyes welled up with tears as his mind registered the pain flowing in from his scraped up knees, hands and head. He sniffed a few times before the sobs truly started, the sound made all the animals and plants near him cringe with sympathy for their little prince. Sofu D let the child cry for a while, feeling that he needed to learn to pick himself up after his own mistakes. When he didn't stop after a few minutes, he became worried. Standing and racing down the hill, the man pulled the child out of the mud and started cleaning him up, only then did he see the sluggish flow of blood coming from the side of D's head, and the exotic plants blooming on the Slavic waterside.

"Aiyaa, little one, this is why we do not run when the ground is wet. You are okay, Ye ye has you…Shh, shh, it's okay, you're okay." The warm tone of his grandfather speaking in their native language was comforting to the injured child, and he turned to snuggle himself into the warm silk, unaware that he was totally ruining it with his mud-laden self. Count didn't mind the mess and indeed only held the child closer as he ascended the hill and walked into the town square; entering the inn they were staying at. He took the child up to their room and got him out of the ruined clothes, bathed away the muck and ripped up the clean parts of his ruined cheongsam for bandages, though silk was far from ideal for such purposes. By the time it as all over, D had stopped crying and now was looking very tired indeed. Count gave a small piece of the rescued sweet bun to the child and then set him down underneath the covers for him to nap away the pain. After all, being such a little nature kami was very difficult.

***Dacryops**- Wateriness of the eyes

****Polevoi:** Russian nature spirits of fields. They are a mix between the benevolent domovoi and the malignant leshii. Domovoi are protectors of houses, resembling the Western guardian angel. They only cause harm to people of low morals. Otherwise, they're good companions in your house, and help out with chores. Don't make them mad though, because then they might try to suffocate you! Leshii are demonic-like entities that inhabit and protect the forests and beasts within. They are known to cause great mischief to those who try to harm the forest they live in. They also are known to carry off young children in the night. The Polevoi are hybrids of these two spirits, not entirely evil, nor entirely good.


End file.
